PATHOMORPHOLOGIC AND IMMUNOFUNCTIONAL CHA RACTERIZATION OF GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST-INDUCED INJURIES IN NONLYMPHATIC TARGET ORGANS AFTER SOLID-ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION IN THE RAT MODEL
F. Fandrich et al., PATHOMORPHOLOGIC AND IMMUNOFUNCTIONAL CHA RACTERIZATION OF GRAFT-VERSUS-HOST-INDUCED INJURIES IN NONLYMPHATIC TARGET ORGANS AFTER SOLID-ORGAN TRANSPLANTATION IN THE RAT MODEL, Langenbecks Archiv fur Chirurgie, 1996, pp. 133-138
While acute graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is implicated with delete
rious morbidity and a high mortality rate following allogeneic bone ma
rrow transplantation (BMTx), comparable complications after transplant
ation of solid vascularized organs are apparently rare. However, as ob
served for single cases after liver, spleen-pancreas, lung, and small
bowel transplantation (SBTx) GvHD often progresses and reaches a letha
l outcome if the involved immunological reactions lead to clinical man
ifestation. The here presented study compared isolated SBTx with the i
mpact of simultaneous parental SB + BMTx in a semiallogeneic model (P
--> F1) on incidence and clinical course of GvHD and related injury of
target organs such as liver, skin, and gastrointestinal tract. Grade
and severity of GvH-mediated clinical and pathomorphological alteratio
ns were directly proportional to the amount of transplanted immunocomp
etent cells and the number of proliferating cells in GvH-associated ta
rget organs, and indirectly proportional to the initial anti-parental
NK- and T-cell activity of F1 recipients.